An angry Congress President Sonia Gandhi was at her combative best after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday dubbed as 'illegitimate' the 2009 election, a remark which he later retracted.
Three top leaders of the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Jaswant Singh -- will contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections and manage the party's election campaign instead.
Advani told the PM that the Speaker carried on with House business amid din and did not allow the party to raise its objections over the arrest of its chief Rajnath Singh.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
'We are confident that you, with your vast experience, will conduct the proceedings in accordance with highest traditions of democracy,' Dr Manmohan Singh.
62-year-old Sampath will take over as CEC after incumbent S Y Quraishi demits office on June 10.
Here are some day's snippets of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections:
Hours after L K Advani emphasised that the Bharatiya Janata Party would need to join hands with other political outfits to defeat the Congress, the Janata Dal - United on Saturday attempted to reach out to senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, saying she should have been considered first for the prime minister's post as she is a lady and the leader of her party in the Lok Sabha.
"NDA is a beautiful rainbow of regional aspirations... So nation's development through the development of states... At a time when we are working for a developed India, NDA is taking the lead in showing the spirit of sabka prayas," he said.
Today is also PM Lal Bahadur Shastri's birth anniversary.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it will support the government in passing the anti-rape Bill by voting in its favour.
The National Democratic Alliance convener and defence minister said Advani's name does not figure in the NDA agenda.
The Indian National Lok Dal on Sunday rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and announced that it will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections in Haryana in alliance with the BJP.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shahnawaz Hussain, member of Lok Sabha from Bhagalpur, claimed on Sunday that the issue of the next President of India was still open. National Democratic Alliance leaders who met on Sunday deferred the matter for a few days and asked non-UPA chief ministers their point of view.
Modi asked MPs to inform the masses about various pro-people features of the budget.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha has said there are many "capable" prime ministerial candidates in the party, including himself, but a decision on whether or not to project anybody for the coveted post would be taken before the Lok Sabha elections. Sinha also sought to downplay reports of differences between BJP leader L K Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Reacting to newspapers reports Leader of the Opposition Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj denied that Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's Yatra against corruption had taken the party's second rung leadership by surprise.
The deputy prime minister's comments come after the prime minister's remarks that he was 'fit and ready' for elections.
Parliamentarians led by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday paid homage to martyrs on the 13th anniversary of the attack on Parliament.
A large number of political leaders, diplomats and other bigwigs attended the wedding reception hosted by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor and his new wife Sunanda Pushkar in New Delhi.
The live telecast of Parliament proceedings will make parliamentarians more responsible and debates more purposeful, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said.
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday said there was possibility of an alliance minus the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
With the National Democratic Alliance being reduced to a three-party alliance after Janata Dal-United's exit, Shiv Sena on Monday asked the BJP to explain its plans to bring in new allies, saying, "Friends don't grow like trees."
The government on Tuesday conceded the opposition demand for having 30 members in the Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum issue, giving up its earlier plan for a 21-member panel to accommodate smaller parties like All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, sources said.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday visited Tihar jail to meet two former party members of Parliament and L K Advani's ex-aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, currently under judicial custody in the cash-for-votes case, to express solidarity with them.
Accompanying Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani on his Jan Chetna Yatra, Swaraj was travelling to the Gandhi maidan in Patna from Hajipur when her health dipped.
The Opposition sought the prime minister's apology for it.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, who is in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, briefed the top party leadership about the crisis in the state following the suspension of talks between the BJP and JD (S) abt the impending power transfer
Bommarabettu Laxmijanardhana Santhosh is the only south Indian and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's representative in the BJP's senior decision-making hierarchy.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi greeted Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on his 71st birthday inside the Lok Sabha on Monday, minutes before it resumed session.
'It is for the first time that Modi has chosen someone as CM who happens to be a mass leader, a polarising figure, a vote catcher, a powerful orator and a Hindu mascot all at once -- qualities usually associated with Modi,' points out Rajeev Sharma.
A move is afoot to extend the session of Parliament by three days from December 27 to 29 after a five day break from December 22, when it was scheduled to conclude, to facilitate adequate time for consideration of the Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal Bill is expected to be brought in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has sounded Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party leader L K Advani on the move and has promised to get back.
Amit Shah's fall has dented his boss Narendra Modi's eligibility to some day lead non-Congress centrist parties at the Centre. Here lies the real win for the Congress, as this will play as an advantage for its future leadership, says Sheela Bhatt.
'We want the prime minister to express public regrets over his attitude,' BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.
Altogether 160 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion while no vote was cast against the same.
After Rahul's Bharat Jodo Yatra began criss-crossing the Hindi heartland, BJP leaders have revived their attacks on 'dynasty politics' and 'family rule' in the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Manoj Tiwari and RK Singh found fault with the party's strategy and supported the demand of veterans like L K Advani that accountability be fixed.
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